• Ecclestone confident of being exonerated of wrongdoing
• Investigation centres on £30.6m paid to German banker

Bernie Ecclestone has travelled to Germany to meet a state prosecutor investigating alleged payments of m (£30.6m) to a German banker during the sale of Formula One’s commercial rights five years ago.

“I have been co-operating with the investigation of the affairs of Dr [Gerhard] Gribkowsky since the outset,” the 80-year-old Ecclestone said in a statement on Friday.

“When I was informed that there was a first suspicion in relation to my perceived involvement in the matter, I went to see the senior state prosecutor and her team in Munich earlier this month to clear up any allegations against me.”

The investigation follows the arrest in January of former BayernLB executive Gribkowsky, whose bank had a stake in Formula One up to 2006 along with JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Ecclestone’s family trust.

The banks had acquired a 75% stake in F1 holding company SLEC after the collapse of Germany’s Kirch media group, which had borrowed some .6bn from them. BayernLB was Kirch’s biggest creditor.

SLEC was sold to the Formula One rights holders, private equity firm CVC, in 2006 with Ecclestone remaining hands-on in running the business.

The billionaire said he would continue to co-operate fully with the investigation. “I am confident that when the full facts have been established, I will be exonerated of blame for any wrongdoing.”

Gribkowsky is accused of selling a 48% stake in F1 without proper valuations and receiving the payments disguised as consultancy agreements.

Ecclestone has not been accused of having any connection with the payments, has publicly denied involvement and has said he did not bribe the banker.

Sport: Motor sport | guardian.co.uk

• Vettel claims Red Bull’s 10th pole of the yearby 0.002sec
• Alonso pleased despite missing chance to take pole

Sebastian Vettel claimed Red Bull’s 10th pole position of the year following an electrifying battle with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard, quickest in the first two qualifying sessions, seemed poised to take Ferrari’s first pole for 28 races, stretching back to the 2008 Brazilian grand prix. But Vettel snatched top spot from Alonso by just two thousandths of a second on his final flying lap to spark joyous celebrations among the home fans at Hockenheim. Vettel will almost certainly claim this to be the best pole of his six this season and 11 of his career.

“It would be interesting to see just how much it is, two thousandths of a second,” said Vettel. “It was very close all session. Fernando was really strong, and the Ferraris were very competitive.

“We knew it would be a difficult session, and two thousandths of a second is not what you are looking for, so we had to push very hard and it was very exciting. I’m extremely happy because it’s my first time on pole at home, but the challenge will come tomorrow when it will be a tough fight against the red cars.”

Alonso said: “We have to be happy because we are on the front row of the grid for the first time this season. Finally we have had a perfect Saturday, and although we lost pole by a very small margin, this is not important. The points are won tomorrow, so we also have to have a good Sunday.”

With none of the rain that blighted practice yesterday, as well as the start of this morning’s final session, Ferrari proved they have put recent problems behind them and Felipe Massa will start third on the grid. Mark Webber, winner last time out at Silverstone, is fourth, followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton – the former outpacing the latter for the first time in seven races.

Renault’s Robert Kubica is seventh, followed by Rubens Barrichello in eighth and his Williams team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in 10th. Between them in ninth is Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg.

For the third time in four qualifying sessions, Michael Schumacher failed to make it out of Q2, with fellow German Hulkenberg proving to be his undoing on this occasion. Towards the end of the 15 minutes Schumacher had crept into 10th position, only for Hulkenberg to knock the seven-times champion down to 11th with his final lap.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov will line up 12th and 13th. Adrian Sutil qualified 14th in his Force India but incurs a five-place grid penalty for needing a new gearbox and will therefore start 19th.

Pedro de la Rosa in his Sauber will start 14th, followed by the Toro Rosso pairing of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi.

It proved to be a wretched qualifying session for Force India as the initial 20-minute run was red flagged after five minutes due to Vitantonio Liuzzi hitting a wall along the start-finish straight. Liuzzi made a mistake by running wide on the still wet astroturf on the outside of the final corner, known as the Sudkurve.

That sent the Italian careering across the track where he ended up ploughing into the concrete pit wall, immediately losing his front wing and a tyre that was narrowly avoided by a passing Ferrari. With fibreglass from the chassis scattered across the circuit, it took the marshals eight minutes to clear away the debris and the pit lane to re-open again.

Liuzzi will start 22nd, with only Hispania Racing’s Sakon Yamamoto and Lucas di Grassi for Virgin Racing behind him, the latter unable to set a time due to a technical problem. The four drivers ahead of Liuzzi who all failed to make it out of Q1 were the Lotus duo of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, along with Timo Glock and Bruno Senna for Virgin and Hispania Racing.

Due to Sutil’s penalty, Trulli and Kovalainen will move up to 17th and 18th on the grid, with Glock and Senna 20th and 21st.

Sport: Motor sport | guardian.co.uk

• Team keen to fix performance-enhancing diffuser before race
• Red Bull’s pace still seen as major threat in title fight

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are to undergo a rigorous test programme on Friday ahead of the German grand prix.

McLaren were forced to abandon the debut outing of their performance-enhancing exhaust-blown diffuser during the final practice session before last week’s British grand prix at Silverstone. That resulted in the team’s mechanics working until 3am on Saturday, the day before the race, to restore the cars to the set-up used a fortnight earlier in Valencia.

That exhausting possibility looms again before Hockenheim now that the McLaren team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, has ordered a complete evaluation of both types of car during practice.

“The days since the British grand prix have been spent back at the McLaren Technology Centre,” said Whitmarsh. “We have industriously undertaken rig tests, dyno running and development in the wind tunnel to ensure the future deployment of the blown diffuser gives us a more accurate and beneficial read.

“Of course, that final validation will only come at the circuit, so we’re looking at undertaking a major test programme on Friday at Hockenheim. This will involve both drivers running back-to-back evaluations with the old and new floors.

“If these prove positive, we’ll then look at the deployment of the new floor for the remainder of the race weekend. But that’s a decision we’ll only make after a thorough analysis of the inherent risks and benefits.”

Whitmarsh will naturally be hoping McLaren have done their homework and get their sums right in the buildup to the race on 25 July. As Hamilton and Button have this week remarked, the team have punched above their weight of late in terms of results given Red Bull’s superiority when it comes to pace.

Whitmarsh knows, though, the upgrade needs to work sooner rather than later if his team are to retain their lead over Red Bull at the top of both championships.

“Silverstone showed we were in no mood to be complacent,” said Whitmarsh. “That was either in our aggressive push to put upgrades on the car, or our decision to remove them and put our faith in an older iteration of the car, despite a lack of running compared with our rivals.

“Ambition and decisiveness win world championships, and on both counts we got that blend right last weekend, which is pleasing. We’ve now come off an extremely successful run of recent races.

“But we’re nonetheless under no illusions. We know that we need to bring further performance to the car if we are to remain at the forefront of this championship battle.”

Sport: Motor sport | guardian.co.uk